Hmmm

Well, I am going to just say it out-my debt paydown this month officially sucks. The plan was to pretty munch send all of DH's paycheck to Chase this week. However, DH explained to me that he wants to start building our savings up. So, we sent $440 to savings. We also went ahead and paid all the expected medical bills for the baby, even though they aren't due till October, just to get them done with-another $326. DH's work boots literally fell apart the other day, so there went another $180 (this should be partly reimbursed by his work, but I am not sure of the exact amount). They had lasted two years, so I know they are worth it, and DH says they don't hurt his feet as much as the cheap ones, which I know is important when you are on your feet 12 hours a day. Another $350 went to DH's doctor bills and car tax. While I can account where every penny went, it still kind of sucks that our debt went down so little this month! Oh well.

I know DH is right about the savings. I will be getting a payment in October for completion of a project I don't normally get to work on, so this should around $950? This can put our savings up to $1535. DH wants to get the savings up to $2k before we really start blasting the debt again, so we plan to add another $465 in August. I am hoping by September we can resume debt blasting mode again.

Laundry Rant

Somehow, I have let the laundry get so backed up that both of the laundry baskets are full and it is now overflowing into the floor. I am assuming it is about 8 loads. I am trying to figure out how on Earth it got so backed up, since I only had a couple loads to do Wednesday. I know DH spilled Diet Mountain Dew all over our bedding, and then one of my cats threw up on the comforter I had just put on, but still! It just seems a little excessive.
QVC had their Christmas in July special going today, which made me think ahead to Christmas, even though it is five months away. I have bought quite a few gifts already. I tend to buy things through the year as I find them at a good price. We'll definitely be going Black Friday shopping this year though. DH wants to get his mom a laptop, and my mom wants a Sony reader. I would like to find the laptop for around $250, which should be doable since all she needs is a basic one for internet searching, email, you get the idea. Heck you can find a good one now for $300-$330, so it all depends on the sales. The Sony reader is normally $150, so I think I should be able to find it for $125 or less? Just guessing though.

Yikes!

I just noticed it has been 10 days since I lasted blogged! Yikes! What on Earth have I been doing in that 10 days? Nothing all that important, just working, cleaning a lot (late spring cleaning if you will), and spending time with DH. I started doing work on a new project that has not been nearly as lucrative as I thought it would be. I have been told it should pick up by September, and I am really hoping it will.
Nothing really new on the debt paydown or financial front. We have had a lot of small, irregular bills trickle in- car tax, life insurance premium, some medical bills for a minor surgery DH had, things of that nature. Nothing we can't handle, but just enough to nickle and dime you to death! I am trying to learn the 'drug store game' and did my first trip to Walgreens last week. I got two packs of printer paper, a Schitck quatro razor, two packs of batteries, and toothpaste for around $12. I was pretty pleased, since it was my first attempt. I know if I had bought all that at Walmart, I would have spent $30.
We find out what the baby is in about 3 weeks. I can't wait. I am so ready to start decorating the room and getting it really ready for the little one.
Payday is next week, so I should have a nice update. Hopefully, Chase will bite the dust with this update!

Update 2 for July

We are now at $14,229 paid off. By the end of the July, we should have the Chase card paid off.

		Start	13-Jul
Sallie Mae		12762	12145
Wells Fargo		11700	11005
Campus Loan		8250	7475
Chase 2		2300	1264
Credit Union Card		700	680
BOA		9300	8549
BOA 2		1833	2114
Car Loan		7875	4313
Chase 3		1710	0
Chase		2353	0
Car Loan 2		2090	0
Target		149	0
DH School		376	0
Capital One		376	0
		61774	47545

Spending This Month

July 2nd:$75 at Walmart-food items, some 4th special food items, lotion
July 2nd:$11: Subway-so yummy!
July 3rd:$8:KFC
July 3rd:$25:Gas
July 4th:$6: Grocery store
July 5th:$35: Food items
July 6th:$11:Pizza Hut
July 7th:$3-McDonalds
July 8th:$9:lunch with friend
July 8th:$15: cat food
July 9th:$28:car registration
July 9th:$22: DH Gas
July 10th:$20:East Coast Wings
July 11th:$119:Pack N Play for Baby (oops. Totally not planned for, but found on clearance.)
July 12th:$100:Walmart groceries
July 12th:Bojangles:$8
July 13th:Fishing bait:$13
Total:$508

We are pretty high due to buying the pack n play, but I think we can still do pretty good this month. We will likely not meet the $770 goal, but the $900 goal is attainable. We won't be spending any money till this weekend, so that helps. If we can keep spending to groceries, gas, and a couple date nights, I think we'll be okay.

Change of Plans

Lo and behold, my credit card interest rates got hiked up AGAIN. On two of the cards at that. Sigh. I just feel so defeated sometimes in getting all this mess paid down. When your rates are 19.99 percent when they used to be 8 percent, it's rough. I think we are going to put paying down the car on the back burner for now. We are going to get the Chase card paid off in July, and I would like to get the credit union card paid off in August. I don't know if we'll be able to do this since we will be going on vacay and will both be missing work a few days unpaid, but I am going to give it our all. September on, who knows. If BOA doesn't hike my rate up by then, we might focus on the car again, but it just depends.
I need to do a spending update too, but I just don't feel like doing it right now. Maybe later. I need chocolate

Spending Update Again

July 2nd:$75 at Walmart-food items, some 4th special food items, lotion
July 2nd:$11: Subway-so yummy!
July 3rd:$8:KFC
July 3rd:$25:Gas
July 4th:$6: Grocery store
July 5th:$35: Food items
July 6th:$11:Pizza Hut
July 7th:$3-McDonalds
July 8th:$9:lunch with friend
July 8th:$15: cat food
July 9th:$28:car registration
Total:$226

I know I have to do some grocery shopping tomorrow, which will add to the total. I had forgotten all about my car registration. I only have 6 days till I would have been past due, eek! I accidentally did that one time before, and the $200 fee is not kind.

I have not done as much work this week as I needed to, so that kind of bites. I took my little brother to driver's ed and picked him up two days this week, and I had lunch with a friend and spent the afternoon with her, so that kind of threw me off my schedule. Just gotta stick with it!

Our net worth is now -$7865. We're getting there, slowly but surely.

Spending Update for Month

July 2nd:$75 at Walmart-food items, some 4th special food items, lotion
July 2nd:$11: Subway-so yummy!
July 3rd:$8:KFC
July 3rd:$25:Gas
July 4th:$6: Grocery store
July 5th:$35: Food items
July 6th:$11:Pizza Hut
July 7th:$3-McDonalds
Total thus far for the month: $174
My goal is to keep the spending for this month under $900 or about $29 on average a day. We are on day 7 and at $174, so we are on track for the month. If we can stay at this rate, we will be at $770 for the month. After a couple of overspending months, this makes me really happy! We are really trying to cut down on the eating out. We would have so much more money for debt paydown if we could just stop eating out all the time. I don't get why this is so hard for us!

How to Make This Mess Right

I am constantly coming up with budgets and calculating debt pay down to determine if there is a better way for DH and myself to better ourselves financially. It helps my sanity to write things down, so here is what I have been thinking lately:
I think I can tolerate my student loan debt. While I would love to redo things, the fact is I can't. I got three years of education from the debt, which is better than nothing. The student loan debt is at a low interest rate, and it will be gone in 8.5 years with no extra payments.
The credit card and car debt has to go ASAP. We have $17,156 in credit card and car loan debt. By the end of this year, we should have the car and one-two cards gone. Next year, we will focus on getting rid of the smaller card that is left and the big ole' BOA card.
I know we need a larger emergency fund, but when we have debt at such high interest rates, it makes it hard to make that a priority. By the end of the year, I would like to have $1000 in an emergency fund, just as a means to get us started. Once we get BOA paid off, then we can really focus on this. I would ultimately like a six month emergency fund of our expenses, but I know this will take time. I also know once we get the debt paid down, DH wants to divert some money to saving for fun and wants. I am okay with this. When the time comes, we'll have to find a happy medium between saving for emergencies and adding a few more wants to our lives.
We have our retirement savings at 12 percent of our total household income, so I am okay with this right now. We are saving what the retirement calculators say we need to save for a comfortable retirement, so I pray they are accurate!

July Spending

DH and I have got to do a better job keeping our spending under control. I am going to faithfully track every penny spent this month!
July 2nd:$75 at Walmart-food items, some 4th special food items, lotion
July 2nd:$11: Subway-so yummy!
July 3rd:$8:KFC
July 3rd:$25:Gas
July 4th:$6: Grocery store
July 5th:$35: Food items
July 6th:$11:Pizza Hut
July 7th:$3-McDonalds
Total thus far for the month: $174
My goal is to keep the spending for this month under $900 or about $29 on average a day. We are on day 7, so we are on track for the month. After a couple of overspending months, this makes me really happy!